Audio on demand

Behind the Scenes – Landmarks series

National Museum curators share details of the work going on behind the scenes and their research into key collection objects considered in the development of the Landmarks: People and Places across Australia gallery (formerly known as Creating a Country), which will trace a broad history of Australia since European colonisation of the continent.

Following a background to the Landmarks gallery by Daniel Oakman, three of the Museum’s conservators shared the techniques and process used to prepare, treat and install the Kenya station windmill, one of the Springfield dresses, and Phar Lap’s heart.

The first Tuesday in November this year sees the running of the 150th Melbourne Cup. Curator Isa Menzies gives an insight into the race that stops the nation: from the glitz and glamour to the seamy underside of horseracing in Australia.

Curator Anne-Marie Conde shares her work developing an exhibit on Bendigo as part of the gold module for the Landmarks: People and Places across Australia gallery, covering in particular the development of the Chinese community from the 1850s.

Matthew Flinders sailed through the Recherche Archipelago in 1802 and 1803 on board the Investigator. Curator Pip McNaught shares her work developing a Landmarks’ exhibit and talks about Matthew Flinders and his cat, Trim.

For many decades, Sunshine Harvester Works was a significant landmark in Sunshine, a suburb in Melbourne’s industrial west. Museum curator Leah Bartsch explores research into the stories and objects of Sunshine.

Curator Jennifer Wilson talks about her research into the fishing port of Robe in South Australia in the late nineteenth century, as an example of a place where people endeavoured to create a just society with equality of opportunity and participation.

Curator and historian Roslyn Russell talks about the work of amateur scientists, including astronomer WJ Macdonnell, in the New South Wales coastal town of Port Macquarie, as part of her research for the Creating a Country gallery.

The National Museum’s rare 1883 Grubb refractor telescope, used in early Australian astronomical observing programs and returned to working condition, is discussed by curator Kirsten Wehner, astronomer Vince Ford and astronomical engineer Hermann Wehner.

The development of the Australian pastoral industry at Bowen Downs in central Queensland, one of four places to be featured in the ‘Never enough grass’ module of the National Museum’s Creating a Country gallery, is outlined by curator George Main.

Curator Kirsten Wehner outlines the themes of the new National Museum of Australia gallery, Creating a Country (now Landmarks). It will look broadly at the history of Australia since European colonisation of the continent in the late eighteenth century.